Anthraquinones in the fungusTalaromyces stipitatus

Zusammenfassung Drei Anthrachinonpigmente wurden aus dem SchimmelpilzTalaromyces stipitatus CBS 349.72 isoliert. Die Untersuchung zeigte, dass sie Verbindungen identisch sind mit Erythroglaucin, Catenarin und Emodin. Durch Vergleich mit authentischen Proben konnte diese Ansicht bestätigt werden.     

Promises of Presence

My review of Ike Kamphof’s “Webcams to Save Nature: Online Space as Affective and Ethical Space” focuses on the question how the engagement of the spectator of the described websites is temporally structured and how the discrepancy between the instantaneity of affective response and the duration of moral engagement is solved. I propose to draw on Alexander Nehamas’ philosophy of beauty as an in-between, bringing affect and ethics closer together.     

Distribution of some similarity coefficients for dyadic binary data in the case of associated attributes

Parameters are derived of distributions of three coefficients of similarity between pairs (dyads) of operational taxonomic units for multivariate binary data (presence/absence of attributes) under statistical independence. These are applied to test independence for dyadic data. Association among attributes within operational taxonomic units is allowed. It is also permissible for the two units in the dyad to be drawn from different populations having different presence probabilities of attributes. The variance of the distribution of the similarity coefficients under statistical independence is shown to be relatively large in many empirical situations. This result implies that the practical interpretation of these coefficients requires much care. An application using the Jaccard index is given for the assessment of consensus between psychotherapists and their clients.

---

La distribution des coefficients de similarité pour les données binaires et les attributs associés

Résumé Les paramètres de la distribution de trois coefficients de similarité entre paires d'éléments taxinomiques opérationels de données multivariables binaires (présence/absence) ont été dérivés dans l'hypothèse d'indépendance statistique. Ces paramètres sont utilisés dans un test d'indépendance pour les données dyadiques. L'existence est autorisée, dans la population d'éléments, d'une association entre plusieurs attributs. Il est également permis que les deux éléments de la dyade soient tirés de deux populations différentes, ayant différentes probabilit és quant à la présence des attributs. Dans beaucoup de situations empiriques, la variance des coefficients de similarité peut être relativement élevée dans le cas d'indépendance statistique. Par conséquence, ces coefficients doivent être interprétés avec précaution. Un exemple est donné pour le coefficient de Jaccard, qui a été employé dans une recherche sur la concordance entre des psychothérapeutes et leurs clients.

     

Cynodontin,the tetrahydroxyanthraquinone ofCurvularia andDrechslera species

Summary The red anthraquinone derivative isolated from several Drechslera and Curvularia species has been identified as cynodontin (1,4,5,8-tetrahydroxy-2-methylanthraquinone), and not as 1,4,5,8-tetrahydroxy-2,6-dimethylanthraquinone as reported earlier. Both pigments showed similar physico-chemical properties. A good distinction could be obtained by gas-liquid chromatography.     

Vital Instability: Life and Free Will in Physics and Physiology, 1860–1880

During the period 1860–1880, a number of physicists and mathematicians, including Maxwell, Stewart, Cournot and Boussinesq, used theories formulated in terms of physics to argue that the mind, the soul or a vital principle could have an impact on the body. This paper shows that what was primarily at stake for these authors was a concern about the irreducibility of life and the mind to physics, and that their theories can be regarded primarily as reactions to the law of conservation of energy, which was used among others by Helmholtz and Du Bois-Reymond as an argument against the possibility of vital and mental causes in physiology. In light of this development, Maxwell, Stewart, Cournot and Boussinesq showed that it was still possible to argue for the irreducibility of life and the mind to physics, through an appeal to instability or indeterminism in physics: if the body is an unstable or physically indeterministic system, an immaterial principle can act through triggering or directing motions in the body, without violating the laws of physics.     

Histamine as an extremely potent releaser of vasopressin in the rat

Summary Intraperitoneal and intraventricular injection of histamine induces a very fast and high elevation of vasopressin in rat plasma as determined by radioimmunoassay. The effects are dose and time related. The intraventricular injection is more effective with regard to time and dose than the intraperitoneal injection.     

Studies on the modulation of the desensitization of the pituitary gland by luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone in the ovariectomized rat

In ovariectomized rats the desensitization of the LH cells in vivo, which develops during constant rate infusion of LHRH, 1) does not depend on a concomitant depletion of the pituitary LH stores, 2) proceeds normally when the hypothalamo-pituitary connection has been severed and 3) is a process in which LH itself is not involved.